Energy influence in North Dakota is expanding — so what?
With so many interesting stories related to energy, and North Dakota in particular, how did you come up with this story, about the expanding influence of oil and gas in state politics?
I actually did my first reporting on the oil boom in late 2011. I have continued to keep an eye on the state and during that period it was becoming big national news. All of the stories talked about the sheer scale of development, both the positives and the drawbacks as well as the social impacts and infrastructure of development.
But the one thing I noticed is that oil and gas were able to basically operate how they wanted. What really struck me, one of the most noticeable things was the steep rise in the amount of money given to politicians in North Dakota.
North Dakota is a small state. Running a political campaign is comparatively cheaper, and people know each other, campaigning there is very different than most places in the country. For 2012 there was more than twice as much money than in previous elections and it really seemed to start changing politics in the state.
North Dakota has seen similar booms in the past. In the 1970s it was coal mining and in the 1980s it was an oil boom. How do those periods compare to what is going on now?
Critics of what’s happening now point to those periods as examples of a more responsible way to do things. In the 1970s, they passed extraction taxes and laws to ensure that after mining was done, the companies cleaned up and the state benefited from it. In the 1980s they raised the oil tax to 11.5 percent.
People think now it’s a different attitude, it's 'let's not pay attention to a lot of these issues and let's just get what we can from the boom when we can get it.'
Why should people outside of North Dakota care about this story?
The oil and gas boom going on in North Dakota is arguably the biggest thing going on in the U.S. energy scene today, and to a large degree, is responsible for the record surge in domestic energy. What was interesting to me is that this is happening in people's backyards. It was time to close the loop on that, and see how our policies impact real people.
Where are the environmental voices in North Dakota?
Related: How oil and gas firms gained influence and transformed North Dakota
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Big Oil, Bad Air. Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
